TradeWars 2/QuixPlus Documentation Text

From TradeWars Museum

Revision as of 07:26, 30 April 2010 by Jpritch (Talk | contribs)
(diff) ← Older revision | Current revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search
                     TradeWars 200/QuixPlus

Original BASIC version
by CHRIS SHERRICK (PTL)
Pascal conversion by Lord Darkseid

Modifications by Sorcerer, Supreme Dalek,
The Omega Man, and Preston Stroud

Most recent modifications (10/20/87) by
Quixotic Software, CA

"It's the sincerest form of programming..."


This is a multi-player game that is a cross between a war game and a
space trading game. Players compete against one another and are even able to
attack and kill each other. You have a ship that can roam the universe, from
space port to space port trading metals, organics and equipment to earn credits
(money.) Once you've earned some credits, you can buy fighters or cargo holds.
With more cargo holds, you can carry more merchandise and earn more credits.
With fighters, you can attack and destroy other players' ships and steal cargo
holds from them. You can also defend a space port (or a series of sectors and
space ports) which will give you exclusive trading and make even more credits.
You can also convert your fighters & cargo holds into mines, and terrorize
other players. The goal of this game is simple: to control the universe.

GETTING STARTED
All you have to do to play this game is to log on. The computer will
automatically recognize you (provided you are worthy enough to be chosen to
play the game) and set you up in the game if there is enough room for you. If
there isn't room for you, don't worry. Old players are often...deleted, so
room should open up in several days. You should also leave a message for the
sysop telling him you want to play because he might be able to delete an old
player before his time to make room for you. When you start, the computer will
give you a ship along with some cargo holds and some fighters and you will be
on your way to becoming the most powerful person in the universe, provided you
*DON'T* [annoy] the Emperor...

ONCE YOU'RE IN...
Once you're in, the computer will remember everything you do. If you exit
the game in the middle, or even hang up on the game, it will remember what you
did and and allow you to continue the next time you decide to play. You are
allowed so many turns a day, and each time you move from sector to sector or
dock at a space port, you lose one turn. Unfortunately, how many turns you've
used up is remembered. If someone has left some fighters to protect the
sector, you have to fight off his fighters before you you are allowed to do
anything in that sector. You can also retreat at the cost of one fighter or 5
Ship Armor points if you don't have any.
However, once you're in a sector, you can trade at space ports, take or
leave fighters within the sector to defend it, and even attack other players'
ships. Every time you attack someone's ship, they will know who did it. This
also goes for you; if someone kills your fighters, you will know who did it.
So experiment! Feel free to wipe someone out...they might even return the
favor. Start a war!

THE ROMULANS
You're not alone in the universe. The evil Romulans, a race of warring
scumbags, wander around seeking whom they can molest. These evil warriors
dwell in a run-down portion of the known universe and if you are mighty enough,
you can conquer them. The Romulans exist for the sole purpose to annoy
players, but an outstanding TradeWars player can actually defeat the Romulans
and receive an Imperial War grant! But beware, these guys are tough as Earl
Quinones...

ROGUE MERCENARIES
Besides the Romulans, there are bands of fighters that merely hold turf,
and won't let ANYONE enter the sector. These are generated when the player
they were working for got killed. They can make your day...

ONCE YOU'RE IN A SECTOR
Once you're in a sector, there are several things you can do. The
following is a list of available commands:

A - ATTACK
This command allows your fighters to attack another player's ship
in the same sector. When you attack another's ship, the computer will
ask you the number of fighters you want to use. Then the computer will
do the fighting for you. On every attack, someone will lose a fighter,
and there is a 50% chance it will be yours. If you don't lose one, the
other guy will. The computer will keep fighting until either you lose
that many fighters, or you wipe out all the other persons fighters. Then
it will give you a total telling you how good (or bad) you did. It is
possible to lose 500 fighters in one stroke, so be careful with this one.
If you kill off all the fighters protecting another player's ship, you
can attack the ship and salvage 1/4 of its cargo.

C - COMPUTER
Each ship has an on-board computer. The computer has several functions,
including a commerce report, a sector finder, a ranking routine, and a ship to
ship communication system. The port report will give the quantity of any
unprotected port so you can immediately know where there is some good
trading. The computer will ask you for what sector the port is in. Just
enter the sector number. For example, for Sol, enter a '1'. If there
isn't a port in that sector, or someone is protecting that port with fighters,
the computer will respond with "No information available."
The sector finder will tell you how to get to any sector you specify.
If you want to know how to get to another sector, run this program. It
will tell you the shortest route to take to get to the sector you want. This
will be very useful until you get a map made.
The ranking routine ranks all the players playing the game. Along side
the player is his or her value in credits. This includes everything, including
fighters dropped in sectors. Note that a person who has been killed has a
value of zero.
The ship-to-ship communicator allows you to send 160 characters(two lines)
of tactical information to another player, such as "There are 50 Romulans in
sector 17, please help" or "Let's gang up on King Tusk, he killed me twice..."

D - DISPLAY SECTOR
This will give you info about the sector you are in. It will tell
you the sector you are in, the name and class of any ports in the sector,
other players' ships and the the number of fighters protecting them, the
number of fighters protecting the sector and who they belong to, and what
sectors the warps lead to. Note the difference between fighters protecting
the sector and the fighters accompanying ships. The fighters protecting
the sector are the ones you have to fight in order to get into the sector.
The fighters accompanying the ships are the ones you have to destroy to
get to the other players' ships (using the 'A' command.)

F - TAKE OR LEAVE FIGHTERS
This lets you leave fighters to defend a sector or take the ones
already there. If there are fighters protecting a sector, no one can
enter that sector without defeating them. The computer will ask you how
many fighters you want defending the sector. Note: this is DEFENDING
THE SECTOR. If you have some there already, and you enter a number less
than the number there, you will take the remaining fighters. If you want
to leave three fighters in an empty sector, enter '3'. If you have seven
fighters in a sector and want to take them all, enter '0'. (None will
be left defending the sector.) If you have four fighters in a sector
and want to take three and leave one, enter '1' and the remaining three
will go with you. At one time, you could not leave fighters in sectors 1-7,
since that is the Federation and they don't like having fighters in their
home sectors, but the new peace & prosperity treaty guarentees free movement
for fighters throughout the galaxy, except for sector 1(Sol).

G - GAMBLE
We have allowed a human by the name of Mudd to take over the chancellor-
ship of our gambling council. You may gamble your winnings with him, and hope
you beat him bad enough to have him killed for losing the Emperor's assets.
But be warned: this can take a LOT of cash to pull off...

I - INFO ABOUT YOUR SHIP
This command will give you information about your ship. It will
tell you the sector you are in, the number of turns left, the number of
fighters in your fleet, the number of cargo holds on your ship and what
they contain, and how many credits you have.

L - LAND/CREATE A PLANET
Planets are similar to ports, only they produce everything(in differing
quantities), and give their merchandise away instead of bartering with them.
If you <L>and in a sector containing no planets you will be able to Create a
planet. But you will need 10,000 credits to purchase a Genesis Torpedo to do
so.
Sounds nice doesn't it?

One thing you should know about planets is what productivity is. Productivity
is how many units that planet produces per 24 hours. You can increase the
productivity by investing money into a planet. Planets start with an initial
productivity of 1 in ore, organics, and equipment. They have a maximum
productivity of 20-30 each. I highly recommend leaving fighters in a sector
with a planet in it because it doesn't cost a thing to destroy a planet. All
you have to do is land at it. There is one planet allowed per sector.

M - MINE THE SECTOR
This allows you to terrorize peaceful, innocent merchants in their own
home sectors. Your Engineer will convert 2 cargo holds & 5 K3-A fighters into
a space mine, with a 1/10 chance of hitting the next ship to enter the sector.
This can really brighten up someone's day.

P - PORT
This command allows you to dock and trade with space ports, providing
there is one in your sector. Docking at a space port uses up one turn. When
you trade, you trade in units. One unit is enough to fill one cargo hold
aboard your ship. There are three types of merchandise: ore, organics(org.),
and equipment (eqp.) Each port has a class that determines what it will sell
and buy. A class 1 port sells eqp. and buys everything else. A class 2 port
sells organics and buys everything else, and a class 3 port sells ore and buys
everything else. When you dock, you will haggle over the prices. They will
give you an offer, and you will counter offer. This will continue until either
they take your offer, or decide to wait for another trading vessel to do
business. The prices depend on how much they have or need. The more they have
or need, the better the bargain. Ports produce a limited amount of merchandise
a day. If you can capture one with fighters, don't trade with it for several
days and let the prices get better and better. How much of a bargain varies
from port to port. Sol (in sector 1) is a special port. It sells fighters,
ship armor, cargo holds, and turns. When you buy turns, they are a temporary
one shot deal; you buy turns, not the number of turns allotted per day. These
prices of fighters and cargo holds vary depending on what day of the week it
is; you don't haggle over these prices.

W - WARP
This allows you to move from sector to sector. The Organians have
established warp lanes from sector to sector that you can travel through. Each
move takes up one turn and you have a limited number of turns a day. If you
move into a sector with fighters protecting it, you will have to fight them
before you can enter. You can attack or retreat. If you retreat, you will
return to the sector from which you came from, but you won't use up another
turn. It will cost you one fighter to retreat or 5 ship armor points, and if
you don't have any fighters or armor left, there is a 50% chance you will make
it.

Q - QUIT GAME
This command allows you to quit the game and return to the BBS.
You can also control-K out, or hang up, but I would rather have you simply
Quit. It makes sure that nothing is going to go wrong. If you quit and
you haven't used up all your turns, you can come back later on and continue
with your remaining turns.

? - HELP!
This command will give you a list of the commands you can use.

Z - INSTRUCTIONS
This will reprint these instructions.

This is all there is to the game. Play it and have fun!
Personal tools
current TWGS Activity
Servers: 159
Players:
this month: 393
this year: 994
last year: 4,007
since 2011: 59,453